Brookfield school audit prompts speculation

Updated 10:37 pm, Thursday, January 9, 2014

Or could it be the school system simply has not been given enough money to pay its bills.

Those are some of the community murmurings stirred by the town auditor's report presented at the Board of Finance meeting Wednesday night.

In the draft findings -- to be officially completed in a week -- auditors from Mahoney Sabol & Co., of Glastonbury, found that in the last two years the school district overspent its budget by $1.15 million, a violation of state law and Town Charter. The gap was offset by $471,000 credit returned from Cigna, its health insurance carrier.

Auditors noted a need for better internal controls over the district's corporate credit card and concerns about stipend payments as fringe benefits to a handful of employees outside the regular payroll/tax process.

"We are looking to resolve through this through three lenses: the lens of transparency, correct action and the lens of accountability," said Republican First Selectman Bill Tinsley. "As as we look through the actions we would take and propose to the community, we will use those lenses as a factor in determining what we recommend."

Republican Finance Board member Ernie Nepomuceno said it appears the school administration has been operating as it if were a "mom and pop" operation for several years.

"It's an outrage," Nepomuceno said.

Republican school board member Harry Shaker agreed. "It's very disturbing," he said. "This a perception of trust issue, and we have to repair the trust."

"At this point, because of the severity of the breach of trust, I wouldn't put anything out of the realm of possibility ... on what the punishment will be," Shaker said.

On Tuesday night, school board members met with School Superintendent Tony Bivona and Director of Finance, Technology and Operations Art Colley in a closed-door session. A special meeting is now scheduled with the auditors on Jan. 22.

"We have been presented with a problem and we have to pull together as town boards and the community to resolve it," Bivona said. "We are very upset with what happened ... and we will work hard to ensure this does not happen again.''

Reet Lubin said she is angry this practice was not detected in prior administrations. She said she fears how a repayment of $700,000 will affect future taxes. But she also said this might have occurred because the school system is not getting adequate money to pay its bills.

Finance Board members have stated that the school board can always seek a special appropriation, but current and past members emphasized that requests for additional funds have been denied in the past.

The auditors did not question the legitimacy of any payments.

Democrat Howard Lasser, the former selectman who was Tinsley's opponent, said this is a "serious issue" and not one that would be best resolved with a blame game.

"The sky is not falling," said Lasser, a retired corporate financier. "There is a solution to this. Those who are trying to point fingers and find culprits here are doing no one any favors."

Finance Board Chairman Phil Kurtz said this audit has prompted much concern and taxpayer ire.

"We all know you can't overspend your budget," he said. "The focus, now, though must be finding the proper fix. We will do this in a timely, and honest way, working together with all the boards. We're going to get this resolved.''